ADAGE: A generic two-layer framework for adaptive agent based modelling

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Evans, Benjamin Patrick, Zeng, Sihan, Ganesh, Sumitra, Ardon, Leo
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Evans, Benjamin Patrick
Zeng, Sihan
Ganesh, Sumitra
Ardon, Leo
author_facet Evans, Benjamin Patrick
Zeng, Sihan
Ganesh, Sumitra
Ardon, Leo
contents Agent-based models (ABMs) are valuable for modelling complex, potentially out-of-equilibria scenarios. However, ABMs have long suffered from the Lucas critique, stating that agent behaviour should adapt to environmental changes. Furthermore, the environment itself often adapts to these behavioural changes, creating a complex bi-level adaptation problem. Recent progress integrating multi-agent reinforcement learning into ABMs introduces adaptive agent behaviour, beginning to address the first part of this critique, however, the approaches are still relatively ad hoc, lacking a general formulation, and furthermore, do not tackle the second aspect of simultaneously adapting environmental level characteristics in addition to the agent behaviours. In this work, we develop a generic two-layer framework for ADaptive AGEnt based modelling (ADAGE) for addressing these problems. This framework formalises the bi-level problem as a Stackelberg game with conditional behavioural policies, providing a consolidated framework for adaptive agent-based modelling based on solving a coupled set of non-linear equations. We demonstrate how this generic approach encapsulates several common (previously viewed as distinct) ABM tasks, such as policy design, calibration, scenario generation, and robust behavioural learning under one unified framework. We provide example simulations on multiple complex economic and financial environments, showing the strength of the novel framework under these canonical settings, addressing long-standing critiques of traditional ABMs.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_09429
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ADAGE: A generic two-layer framework for adaptive agent based modelling
Evans, Benjamin Patrick
Zeng, Sihan
Ganesh, Sumitra
Ardon, Leo
Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
General Economics
Economics
Computational Finance
Agent-based models (ABMs) are valuable for modelling complex, potentially out-of-equilibria scenarios. However, ABMs have long suffered from the Lucas critique, stating that agent behaviour should adapt to environmental changes. Furthermore, the environment itself often adapts to these behavioural changes, creating a complex bi-level adaptation problem. Recent progress integrating multi-agent reinforcement learning into ABMs introduces adaptive agent behaviour, beginning to address the first part of this critique, however, the approaches are still relatively ad hoc, lacking a general formulation, and furthermore, do not tackle the second aspect of simultaneously adapting environmental level characteristics in addition to the agent behaviours. In this work, we develop a generic two-layer framework for ADaptive AGEnt based modelling (ADAGE) for addressing these problems. This framework formalises the bi-level problem as a Stackelberg game with conditional behavioural policies, providing a consolidated framework for adaptive agent-based modelling based on solving a coupled set of non-linear equations. We demonstrate how this generic approach encapsulates several common (previously viewed as distinct) ABM tasks, such as policy design, calibration, scenario generation, and robust behavioural learning under one unified framework. We provide example simulations on multiple complex economic and financial environments, showing the strength of the novel framework under these canonical settings, addressing long-standing critiques of traditional ABMs.
title ADAGE: A generic two-layer framework for adaptive agent based modelling
topic Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
General Economics
Economics
Computational Finance
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.09429